Turks in northern Greece held pending trial for smuggling weapons

ATHENS (Reuters) -A Greek court has ruled that 12 Turks arrested in northern Greece on accusations of participating in an international criminal group smuggling weapons into the country should be detained pending trial, legal sources said on Thursday.

Greek police last week located a group of 15 people close to the Evros river at the Greek-Turkish border. They arrested most of them and confiscated two sacks and one suitcase near them, containing 147 pistols, dozens of bullets and weapons components wrapped in plastic bags.

The 12 suspects are accused of illegally entering Greece and smuggling weapons with the aim of supplying Turkish or other criminal groups active in the country. They have denied any wrongdoing, saying they are migrants and the guns were in the boat that traffickers used to cross the river.

Over the past years, Greece has seen a significant rise in the number of Turkish nationals involved in shootings or arrested for gun possession. Police, according to sources, have linked the increase to a bigger presence in Greece of Turkish criminal groups and gang members settling old scores on foreign ground.

(Reporting by Yannis Souliotis; Writing by Renee Maltezou;Editing by Alison Williams)

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